The ESM is prohibited from making direct capital injections into banks and Germany has made clear there is no question of this changing until the euro-zone bankingunion is up and running.
The receding breakup fear also hit momentum among governments to correct the flaws in the euro zone's makeup, slowing the push to complete a euro-zone "banking union" and to cut the links between governments with weak finances and feeble banks, which was undermining confidence in both.
But if those advocating a euro breakup are barking up the wrong tree, so too are those arguing for the immediate creation of common euro-zone bonds and a bankingunion.